Discovery BoxActs 21:30-31 
Context21:30 The whole city was stirred up, 1 and the people rushed together. 2 They seized 3 Paul and dragged him out of the temple courts, 4 and immediately the doors were shut. 21:31 While they were trying 5 to kill him, a report 6 was sent up 7 to the commanding officer 8 of the cohort 9 that all Jerusalem was in confusion. 10
1 tn On this term see BDAG 545 s.v. κινέω 2.b.
2 tn Or “the people formed a mob.” BDAG 967 s.v. συνδρομή has “formation of a mob by pers. running together, running together…ἐγένετο σ. τοῦ λαοῦ the people rushed together Ac 21:30.”
3 tn Grk “and seizing.” The participle ἐπιλαβόμενοι (epilabomenoi) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was begun in the translation, and καί (kai) has not been translated here.
4 tn Grk “out of the temple.” See the note on the word “temple” in v. 28.
5 tn Grk “seeking.”
6 tn Or “information” (originally concerning a crime; BDAG 1050 s.v. φάσις).
7 tn Grk “went up”; this verb is used because the report went up to the Antonia Fortress where the Roman garrison was stationed.
8 tn Grk “the chiliarch” (an officer in command of a thousand soldiers). In Greek the term χιλίαρχος (ciliarco") literally described the “commander of a thousand,” but it was used as the standard translation for the Latin tribunus militum or tribunus militare, the military tribune who commanded a cohort of 600 men.
9 sn A cohort was a Roman military unit of about 600 soldiers, one-tenth of a legion.
10 tn BDAG 953 s.v. συγχέω has “Pass. w. act.force be in confusion…ὅλη συγχύννεται ᾿Ιερουσαλήμ 21:31.”
